A new transhipment terminal - Fast Track Terminal - is being built at the Przemysłowe Quay in the Port of Gdańsk. The area covering 3.5 hectares will accommodate reloading and storage of, among others, grain, wood, steel or bulk materials.

Last year's tender for the lease of real estate with access to the Przemysłowe Quay at the Port of Gdańsk was won by Fast Track Logistic from nearby Kościerzyna. Currently, changes are already visible in the area: cleaning works are underway in one of the bulk materials warehouses, new surfaces have appeared on some of the storage yards, and in the middle there is a completely new port crane: Liebherr LH 150.

4 decades of experience

Fast Track Terminal will be a completely new organization in the maritime industry. However, Fast Track Logistic, the company that creates the terminal, actually has 40 years of experience.

FTL is a family business. Although the company itself was established in 2016, its roots must be sought much earlier.

– My husband's father ran this type of business – explains Katarzyna Burandt, president of the company. – Fast Track is its continuation.

– It all started with dad. He instilled this passion in me. Fast Track is a continuation of his activities – confirms Marcin Burandt, vice-president of the company, and Katarzyna's husband.

The couple runs the company together and strategic decisions are also made together. But each of them performs different tasks. Mrs. Katarzyna, the president of the company, is responsible for the financial part of the project. Mr. Marcin deals with the operational part.

This division of responsibilities works well because Fast Track Logistic is developing dynamically. The company started with transport services. Initially, it had a fleet of six trucks, which grew over time and at its peak reached 28 cars. The next step was to expand the company with new structures. Loaders, sorters, mobile conveyors and other machines appeared, thanks to which Fast Track could expand the area of its operations. The company's trucks supplied the Tri-City shiprepair yards, but also factories throughout the country. They transported raw materials, construction materials, food products and aggregates. Fast Track Logistic served the Polish market, but entered international markets quite quickly.

All roads lead to the port

Transport turned out to be the beginning of the journey. The next stage of the company's development begins at the Port of Gdańsk. For a company that had previously handled cargo and land transport, this was a natural development path. The company started seaport activities as a subcontractor of the Port of Gdańsk Eksploatacja S.A. Katarzyna Burandt laughs that Marcin came to the port for transshipment and he simply liked it here.

– Last year, when the Port of Gdańsk Authority announced a tender for the lease of a plot in the port with access to the Industrial Quay, my wife and I decided that we would take up the challenge of running the terminal ourselves – says Marcin Burandt.

Fast Track won the tender for the lease of a 3.5-hectare port plot. This is where the Fast Track Terminal is being built, which will soon be ready for transhipment and storage of Polish grain, but also wood, steel and bulk materials. To make this possible, however, it was necessary to first invest in infrastructure.

– Since signing the preliminary agreement with the Port of Gdańsk Authority, we have started investing in infrastructure – approximately PLN 6.5 million – and in machinery – approximately PLN 9 million. In the future, we will invest another PLN 25 million – says Katarzyna Burandt.

– When we took over the premises from the previous tenant after winning the tender, it was in a moribund state. It took us about half a year to bring this infrastructure in, clean it up, and even determine what else it would require. Retrofitting, armament – this still requires very large expenditures – adds Marcin Burandt.

Renovations required, among others: surfaces of storage and maneuvering yards, but also covered warehouses that will be used to store bulk materials - grain of Polish origin, but also feldspar, clinkers, slag. Wood will be unloaded on external yards. The work is still ongoing. One of the buildings will be demolished - thanks to this, the Fast Track Terminal will gain another storage yard. For now, in front of one of the warehouses on the square, there is a completely new Liebherr LH150 port crane ready for action. It is mobile and universal - it can work with various types of cargo.

– The new Liebherr LH150 crane was manufactured at the Liebherr Hydraulikbagger GmbH Production Plant in Kirchdorf and it is the first machine of this type delivered to Fast Track, the first, but not the last. The wheeled chassis concept, thanks to eight independent wheel sets that distribute pressure on the ground, allows for trouble-free and quick travel along the quay without damaging its surface. The device is very mobile and maneuverable thanks to various steering modes, which allows for quick maneuvers on the quay. High lifting capacity and long reach of over 30 meters allow for high reloading efficiency. The device can unload Panamax-class ships with a capacity of up to 800 tons per hour and 1,000 tons per hour in the loading relation - comments Piotr Wrona, branch manager of Liebherr-Polska Sp. z o. o., Gdańsk Branch.

Marcin Burandt adds that thanks to the fact that the crane arm is 32.5 meters long, ships 29 meters wide will be able to moor at the quay. The acquisition of the machine itself took about 9 months. It also required an expert opinion to be prepared jointly with the port.

– We are already at the port. We are just waiting for the formal finalization of the contract, which is why we are signing commercial contracts to carry out reloading from day one and thus contribute to the development of the Port of Gdańsk. As the port authorities have repeatedly emphasized, any investor implementing such large investments is welcome at the Port of Gdańsk. This will be another stable branch of our business, adds Katarzyna Burandt.